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Talk:Intrepid/@comment-2600:1700:DFB0:3C70:3D8C:341C:5F27:2074-20180222035832
A Critique of Intrepid’s Design and Shibafu in General: The major weakness of Shibafu’s Intrepid design is that when it comes down to it, it’s just plain boring and forgettable. The only thing keeping her from blending into a crowd is that there is only one of her, and depending on what the devs do with the rest of the Essex class, that could go away very quickly. Putting aside the actual quality the of artwork (potato-face, head proportions, etc.) which has long been an issue for really all the Kancolle artists (almost all the artists suffer from same-face syndrome), Intrepid’s design lacks any sort of character or design references to the ship itself (or any ship for that matter). Remove the rigging from the character and there is nothing in her design to suggest who she is or even what type of game she belongs to. Compare this to the designs made by Yoshinori or Konishi. I’ll use Yoshinori’s recent Musashi kai-ni artwork as a comparative example: Musashi’s design incorporates the Imperial crest into her neck brace and she is holding shells in her hand, indicating that this character is associated with the military; her dark skin, long white hair, smug smirk, dark clothing, and flowing jacket are all common tropes associated with delinquents in Japanese visual media, tropes that are backed up by the sarashi wrappings, incorrectly worn uniform, and disaffected arm fold in her pre-kai art. Furthermore, her lunging pose indicates action, movement, and initiative, which suggests she’s a go-getter and an action taker, someone who will dive headfirst into her problems; it also makes her look more interesting for no other reason than she’s doing something other than standing there. These all reflect Musashi’s character, but are also references to the ship itself: Musashi had dark deck painting, hence her dark skin and dark uniform, and was built against international law, hence her delinquent persona; it also plays off of Yamato, her straight-laced, courtly, Yamato (it’s right there in the name) Nadeshiko sister. All these things about her character can be inferred just by looking at her artwork and not hearing a single line of dialogue. Compared to Musashi, there is nothing in Intrepid’s design that suggests anything about her as a character or any references to the ship itself. She’s standing in a static pose, wearing a rather simple dress that does nothing to indicate who she is or what her job is, has a neutral facial expression, and wears her hair in a fairly common ponytail. The only standout design elements are the neck pillow (which doesn’t make a great deal of sense since those were used as floatation devices for downed pilots, so why would a ship be wearing one, when undamaged no less?) and the plate on her belt with “11” on it (which also doesn’t make a great deal of sense given that said armor plates were never a military tradition in the US like they were in Japan and really only serves to make her look derivative of the Japanese carriers for whom said plate actually makes since). Intrepid’s design is so bland and empty, you could almost put her in another setting in another game and she wouldn’t seem out of place. Some simple research is all that is needed to look for ideas: she’s currently berthed in New York and her nickname was the Fighting I, maybe have her be somewhat like Kongou, Musashi, or Tenryuu and be something of a boisterous but friendly loudmouth, suggested by a design with a fist raised and her mouth wide open in an energetic shout like Kongou’s; Intrepid was plagued with injuries and accidents during her career, maybe have her covered in bandages or scars; she was involved with the space race and currently hosts space shuttle Enterprise, maybe have her looking up into the sky or carrying rockets (which could be both military or space related); she’s a member of the USN and the Fast Carrier Task Force at that, maybe put her in clothing that suggests an actual uniform, maybe decorated with patches showing her membership with some noteworthy group, or some sort of military association of sorts rather than something you could find almost any woman in the 1940’s wearing out in public (and for Americans in particular, just including a gun and some ammo will not cut it). I’ve seen a few people defending Intrepid’s design state that they prefer her design over Iowa’s, which is seen as stereotypical and over-sexualized. While I tend to agree with that assessment of Iowa’s design, I hesitate to say that Intrepid is an improvement; there’s a huge middle ground between “patriotic stripper” and “boring nobody”. As for why everyone seems to beat up on Shibafu rather than Intrepid alone, it’s because everything I just covered applies to almost everything this artist has done, not just Intrepid. Look at the Fubuki class that he/she drew: they are virtually identical save for hairstyles and are dressed in sailor suits that are so common in anime and associated media it’s become a joke. The 4 Midway carriers are better, particularly with their character speaking through their poses and facial expressions much better, but still have similar problems with their shared wardrobe save for color (it makes sense for Hiryu and Soryu given that for their basis carriers one design was based off the other, not so much Kaga or Akagi). Honestly Shibafu’s best design is Hosho simply because she is the most unique among them. Bottom line, Shibafu has some real issues when it comes to designing characters that has contributed to his/her poor reputation and thus the volume of complaints concerning his/her take on Intrepid basing the artist rather than the art itself.